Henry Miller: The Great American Novelist

Whenever I tell people that they must read Henry Miller's works, they usually turn around and say, yea, we read him in school, I remember that book Death of a Salesman. I never get angry anymore, there is no use. Instead, I slowly and patiently explain that that was Arthur Miller. This Henry Miller type is something completely different.
Then there is the second group, those who remember that famous episode of Seinfeld where Jerry is more than a decade overdue with a copy of Tropic of Cancer at the New York City Library. Great episode, but was this really the epitome of Henry's claim to fame?

Henry Miller's literature offers an intellectual perspective on life from a non-intellectual stand. Henry never claimed to be any better than those around him. Not better from those who were on top, nor those who were down and out. Instead, Miller offers his readers a true to life account of loneliness, heartbreak and struggle using the most sophisticated writing technique seen around the United States during the earlier decades of the 20th Century. Not many American Literature professors would ever place Sexus or the Tropic books ahead of As I lay Dying and The Sun Also Rises.

It is our loss.